Blogs

On June 30, 2025, the Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network North America (PANNA) and several other non-governmental organizations (together, Petitioner) filed a Petition for Writ of Mandamus (Mandamus Petition) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to seek an order directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to act on a 2021 Petition to revoke all food tolerances and cancel registrations for organophosphate (OP) pesticides (OP Petition). The Mandamus Petition was...

As reported in our May 14, 2025, blog item, on May 12, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a petition filed under Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) seeking to prohibit the use of hydrogen fluoride in domestic oil refining through a TSCA Section 6(a) rulemaking. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) announced on July 9, 2025, that after EPA denied their petition, community and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGO) filed suit in the...

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will hold a webinar on July 17, 2025, on “Nanotechnology R&D Infrastructure: Then and Now.” NASEM states that in the two decades since the authorization of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), the United States has become a global leader in the field with world-class research and development (R&D) infrastructure, but asks what new capabilities are needed to support emerging technologies. The webinar will...

On June 23, 2025, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced that it issued agency guidance for implementing Gold Standard Science in the conduct and management of scientific activities. As reported in our June 5, 2025, memorandum, on May 27, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) on “Restoring Gold Standard Science.” The EO restores the scientific integrity policies of the first Trump Administration and “ensures that agencies practice data...

Mr. Kyle Kunkler has been appointed the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticides at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). Since February 2020, Kunkler has been directing government affairs for the American Soybean Association (ASA) in Washington, D.C., with a focus on the biotech and crop protection portfolio. Kunkler, before joining ASA, spent three years with the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), managing...

On July 9, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew proposed significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 18 chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN) and a subsequent TSCA Order. 90 Fed. Reg. 30216. EPA states that it is withdrawing the proposed SNURs because it withdrew the 2022 TSCA Order that was the basis of the rules on December 18, 2024. As reported in our April 17, 2023, blog item, in April 2023,...

On June 30, 2025, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report entitled 2D Titanium Carbide MXenes: Case Study Report on Advanced Materials. Within OECD’s Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN), the Steering Group on Advanced Materials conducted a case study on the potential issues of 2D titanium carbide MXenes. The report describes MXenes as “a group of [two-dimensional (2D)] advanced materials composed of transition metal carbides or...

As reported in our June 28, 2025, blog item, on June 16, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit requesting that litigation over its 2024 final risk management rule regulating chrysotile asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) be held in abeyance for an additional six months. Texas Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA, No. 24-60193. According to the filing, EPA intended to initiate a new...

On June 23, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the postponement of the effective date of certain regulatory provisions of its December 17, 2024, final risk management rule for trichloroethylene (TCE) until August 19, 2025. 90 Fed. Reg. 26453. As reported in our April 15, 2025, blog item, after EPA issued the final rule in December 2024, it received multiple petitions for an administrative stay of the effective date. EPA denied the requests, and the companies submitted...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on June 18, 2025, the release of its proposed method for ranking chemicals in the food supply. According to the document, the systematic post-market assessment of food chemicals consists of the following steps: signal detection, triage, prioritization, scoping, scientific assessment (safety, risk, and/or hazard), risk management review, and risk management action. FDA states that it will publish a full description of the process later in 2025...

On June 6, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it has prepared a revised draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and revised draft plant pest risk assessment (PPRA) evaluating the potential environmental impacts and plant pest risk that may result from the approval of a petition for nonregulated status for blight-tolerant American chestnut (Castanea dentata) from the State University of New York College of...

On June 16, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a final rule making technical amendments to the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) to conform the C.F.R. to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s vacatur of USDA’s May 2020 final rule for organisms developed using genetic engineering. 90 Fed. Reg. 25123. The rule was effective June 16, 2025. As reported in our May 18, 2020, memorandum, the...

The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) announced on July 1, 2025, that it is gathering input to modernize U.S. biotechnology product regulation and create simpler, faster, science-based pathways to market. According to NSCEB, this input will guide follow-on work to its April 2025 report, which called for streamlining regulation of biotechnology products. NSCEB seeks “concrete, actionable ideas across sectors, including defense, industrial products, food,...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it received a petition from Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, Limited seeking a determination of nonregulated status for ISK-311NR-4 Phalaenopsis (moth orchid) that has been developed using genetic engineering to produce a blue-purple flower color. 90 Fed. Reg. 23666. According to APHIS, the petition states that the information provided indicates that ISK-311NR-4 Phalaenopsis is unlikely to pose...

On June 20, 2025, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report entitled Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Alternatives in Hydraulic Oils and Lubricants: Report on Commercial Availability and Current Uses. The report examines the commercial availability and current uses of PFAS and non-PFAS alternatives in lubricants and hydraulic oils within the framework of the Global PFAS Group. OECD notes that it considered publicly available information...

On June 11, 2025, the Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA) published a position paper entitled Bridging the Governance Gap: Divergent EU Approaches to Nano and Advanced Materials that highlights industry challenges with divergent approaches to nano and advanced materials in the European Union (EU). NIA notes that the EU “is at a critical juncture in the approach that it takes towards nano and other advanced materials.” According to NIA, with the European Commission’s (EC)...

On June 26, 2025, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) issued California Notice 2025-08 announcing that pesticide registrants may add or revise multilingual translation of its labels by non-notification. With this change, DPR now is consistent with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to allow pesticide registrants to add the required Spanish-translated sections on its labels by non-notification as part of the Spanish translation requirements under the...

On June 26, 2025, Representatives Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Stephanie Bice (R-OK) announced the formation of the BIOTech Caucus. According to Houlahan’s June 26, 2025, press release, the Caucus’ mission “is to advance bipartisan policy solutions to keep the United States at the forefront of global biotechnology leadership, to engage and learn from sector leaders, and to build awareness and bioliteracy among Members of Congress.” Joining Co-Chairs Houlahan and Bice on the BIOTech Caucus...

On June 16, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit requesting that litigation over its 2024 final rule regulating chrysotile asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) be held in abeyance for an additional six months. According to the filing, EPA intends to initiate a new notice-and-comment rulemaking to reconsider certain provisions of the rule. The litigation, Texas Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA,...

This week the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) posted Parts One and Two of its response to pre-hearing and hearing comments. Part One states that 67 commenters submitted written comments on the April 2025 proposed rule. During the May 22, 2025, hearing on the proposed rule, 11 stakeholders presented verbal testimony. According to the document, MPCA has reviewed the comments and “has identified some parts of the proposed rule that require clarification, or that the agency would...